[themaclad]

If it's a Sunday must be Bristol, the last of the festive four, 5.30 am alarm on a Sunday morning truly obscene, and a slightly coldefr day then when we played there in May.
Take that result now.
City demolished hapless Pompey 5-0 on Thursday although has to be said, the lad in nets for Pompey had a shocker and that is being kind
It's on SKY Plus but be warned the camera position is closer to the moon than it is the pitch. Watched the rugby on Friday night at the Gate, pitch looked in decent nick.
At the moment we are not battling for 14th position, this time it's possible play offs.

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/

In the window they have brought Sam Morsy in, which means if he plays he will spend the afternoon kicking everyone, he has history against us

Gerhard is still the manager



Form Ranking

Brizzle 11 PNE 11

Evenly matched over the last 5 games, suggests a tight game

Unavailable players for Bristol City: Fally Mayulu (injury), Joe Williams (injury), Luke McNally (injury), Mark Sykes (injury), Max Bird (injury), Radek Vitek (injury). Unavailable players for Preston North End: Andrija Vukcevic (injury), Lewis Gibson (injury), Robert Brady (injury), Stefan Thordarson (injury).

Team News
There are no new injury concerns heading into the trip to the South West although the manager spoke after Thursday’s win against Sheffield Wednesday and said Milutin Osmajić will have to be managed carefully having overcome a recent injury setback.

Robbie Brady is a long-term absentee as is Andrija Vukćevic. Lewis Gibson is edging closer to a return to action but it’s unlikely he will feature against Bristol City. Stefán Thórdarson also remains a doubt.

The Hosts

Gerhard Struber’s team registered their biggest victory of the season on New Year’s Day, seeing off Portsmouth in emphatic fashion at Ashton Gate. Adam Randell and Anis Mehmeti gave The Robins a first half lead before a goal from Scott Twine and a Sinclair Armstrong brace sealed a 5-0 win.

City currently sit 8th in the Sky Bet Championship and are a point behind North End having won three of their last four matches – including maximums against Middlesbrough and West Brom.

Match Officials

Referee: Paul Tierney

Assistant Referees: Timothy Wood, Steven Meredith

Fourth Official: Tom Reeves

Paul Tierney will take charge of the clash at Ashton Gate and was last in the middle for a PNE fixture in the Lancashire Derby defeat to Blackburn Rovers at Deepdale in November.

[themaclad]

https://www.fotmob.com/matches/preston-v...tab=lineup

Attendance: 22,409 (737 PNE fans)

Referee: Paul Tierney



22 August 1987 my first ever visit to Ashton Gate, we lost 3-1, following that game two things happened, Jim Branagan never played for us again having put in the most abysmal performance ever seen in a NorthEnd shirt and from that day have never lost in Bristol either at Ashton Gate, Eastville or the Memorial Ground.
Yesterday the record continued, a good 2-0 away win against a decent side who on the day just lacked a cutting edge, we were also helped by a strangely flat atmosphere at the Gate, the home support was virtually silent until the latter stages of the game.
An early goal didn't improve the atmosphere for the home support and we did get a massive amount of help from the home defence, back pass sold the keeper short, his scuffed clearence went to a City midfielder who was easily dispossed by Thompson who fed the ball toDobbing, left footed shot past the keeper and in.
Managed to stay in the lead until the break, Armstrong scuffed a chance wide two great bits of defending both by Storey, one a sliding tackle on Armstrong and a header under the bar as City central dfender had put in a dangerous cross from the byline
Perrma frost started to connect with the bones of my aging body as the second half progressed, however City offered little in the way of efforts on goal, our ex Riis fired a shot wide and failed to connect with a cross at the back post and there almost was the inevitable Lindsay own goal, but once we got the second plain sailing.
The goal goes down to a great bit of skill by our mercurial Dane, Mads, cn be a frustrating player but he was on his game yesterdayt, got out of a tight spot on the touchline, ball to Whiteman onto Devine, second attempt bottom left corner, and that was thank you Bristol you've been a great audience, good night.
Lovely blizzardfilled journey on the way home back in the house 9.15 pm Job done

HECK

Paul Heckingbottom hailed the performance as 'fantastic' and heaped the praise on his team for handling a relentless festive schedule.

“It was fantastic. With and without the ball we were really good, and credit to the players off the back of a testing schedule with four games in ten days. We've had three overnight stays in that and six days on the coach so it's credit to everyone, the players and the staff, with how we’ve performed in this run and the points we’ve taken.

"We were certainly on the rough end of the schedule this festive period, but it's the way it is. Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t. I always say, if you moan about things, you're not going to get the best out of it. So, we attacked it in the best way that we could. And I think the players got what they deserved today.

"It was a very good away performance against a dangerous team. We got a lot of things right with how we set up and then the players delivered some big individual performances. Lots of players had to tweak their roles a little bit to take away Bristol's threats, particularly on the counter and particularly out of the press. We arguably did to them what they like to do to teams."




North End's away form has seen a huge upturn in terms of the results this season and following Sunday's win at Ashton Gate currently sit 2nd in the Championship for points accumulated on the road. Paul Heckingbottom put a lot of that down to having more threats in the attacking third.

He added: "We had lot of big away performances last season but we didn’t get the results and it's all about the results. You look at how we played against top teams last year; you look at the amount of draws we had particularly away from home where I felt we were the better team. It's about turning those into wins, and I think we've added more danger into our group for the opposition this season and that's been a big thing.

"We’re creating chances and scoring chances; I spoke about that a lot last season. We still want to be better at it, we still believe we can be, but we certainly try. Like I said, when we play like that or when we play at our best, no matter what the style is, whether it's us in possession, whether it's us on the front foot pressing, or us defending our box like that, when we're at our best, we'd be difficult to play against."

Bristol City boss Gerhard Struber told BBC Radio Bristol:

"Big frustration. My boys are really disappointed right now. Between the two boxes, we created a good game but we made it easy for them, the goals that they scored.

"These two times, we were not sharp enough to come out and clear the moments. I think we could be more pragmatic in these moments.

"In the opponents' box, we were not ruthless or clinical enough today. Preston are a really good, organised team, with great physical power, and the early goal did not help us today."

On Sam Morsy's debut: "There were really good actions, really good developments in his game, exactly the picture I would have of him."